Byer Blog

2010-01-05T21:10:00.000Z

Henry in all his glory.

“What if climate change is a big hoax…”

2009-12-24T12:43:00.000Z

“What if climate change is a big hoax…”: "

Here’s an editorial that sums up what John and Adam have been saying.

The Family.

2009-11-29T21:03:00.001Z

NetBooks

2009-11-26T17:08:00.001Z

Disclosure : I own a Netbook. I have owned one since the earliest models (the Asus EEE 901 with the horror keyboard). I didn't expect much when i purchased it, a brief Google for specs and comparisons with laptops I have already owned revealed they would not be up to much in terms of performance. They did however scream convenience, and were 30% of the cost of a full lappy. I planned no video editing or gaming, but very quickly started to appreciate the sheer convenience of something that is quickly powered on, immensely easy to carry and BUILT FOR SURFING WEB. the clue is in the name.

So Netbooks have become unfashionable, and we are firmly in the Gartner trough of disillusionment. People are returning their Windows (we will ignore the UNIX factor) Netbooks in droves. Who? What did they expect? How quickly can you return a Netbook and have the supplier happily return your money, based entirely on the fact you think it doesn't perform as well as you like? Presumably you have to do it pretty quickly. I would be interested to know what these people do in that presumably short period of time to decide they aren't satisfied - I guess they get the thing home, immediately attempt to whack out a Video edit of last years Hols and realise its going to take about 6 months. And I would love to know where they go next. Presumably they stump up 3 times as much money, buy some mid range lappy (with integrated graphics) and accept its weighs a ton and takes 20 minutes to be up and running. Do they then open a browser and spend 90% of the remainder of the laptops life simply browsing the net I wonder?

Britain today - a moan and a celebration.

2009-07-30T20:23:00.005+01:00

excellent and poor examples of our society in the last two days. The first bad, and coming from our wonderful friends at British gas.

Arriving unnanounced yesterday lunchtime, the guy from BG asked to read our meter. I was out, my heavily pregnant wife (with triplets) was the only one in. Our meter is quite hidden, and a good couple of feet above eye level, so the meter guy states that he is unable to get a clear reading. My wife suggests we get a stool to stand on - meter guy thinks this is a good idea, but makes no move to ask where one is, so lets my Heavily pregnant wife go off and get the stool. Upon return, he stares at my wife and signals that he isn't going up on the stool, following which my heavily pregnant wife has to climb up a stool and lean into the cupboard to retrieve the meter reading. Well done British Gas. Nice work, a customer lost.

Now Banks are not our most popular orgs at the moment, so today's good news story was a pleasant surprise, and proved that some of the old school banks of yesteryear we hear so much about still exist.

My wife had a 'funny turn' today, whilst in Barclay's bank. I shan't mention the branch in case anyone gets in trouble, but the staff upon noticing my wife's condition, and the obvious stress were simply fantastic. they sat her down, made her a sugary tea, and upon realising that things were not improving, closed down the branch and took her to the doctors. Well done the staff of Barclays.

Barclays gained a business and a personal customer today, and British Gas lost the same. We can only do our own little bit by voting with our feet, but we owe it to ourselves to do so.

2009-07-04T08:26:00.008+01:00

Some scan pictures of our wonderful babies from 3 weeks ago. Click on them to enlarge.

And yes, we are sticking with these names.

LowerTwin

Upper Twin

Singleton

Another of the Singleton

"Daniel"

2009-04-24T13:47:00.003+01:00

At last someone has written a decent song with this title. Having been unfortunate enough to have been named after the Elton John crockfest I now claim to have been named after "Daniel" by "Bat for Lashes" which is a simply brilliant song ( although 30 years too late).

New Zealand Web Blackout

2009-02-17T10:37:00.002Z

Dan Byer is blacked out: Stand up against "Guilt Upon Accusation" for New Zealand http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html

Geek Shopping

2008-06-02T09:22:00.000+01:00

Now this could make shopping almost enjoyable. Android .

Energy

2008-05-29T13:15:00.001+01:00

"It looks as though we'll be doing pretty well just to keep the lights on."

Phenominal Photo

2008-05-28T09:39:00.000+01:00

This is quite simply amazing. Mars Landings.

Can see why the Shuttle tends to get less attention these days when this sort of thing is possible.

Celebrating

2008-05-21T16:47:00.000+01:00

How does one celebrate a victory? The question arose following my beloved AFC scraping through against Staines, and I have no satisfactory answer. The common answer is to get blind drunk, however that inevitably leaves you with feelings of crapness on your first morning as champions in whichever domain the triumph occurred - a time when the buzz should really be kicking in.

I remember something similar after the Rugby 2003 World cup triumph. At the time we attempted to swap ideas between us and the Aussie fans in Flanagans, Wien, on how to behave when winning and losing respectively . We felt we could bring a shedload of penalty disappointment to the table, and they could bring a wealth of experience at winning in just about anything they take part in. Unfortunately they didn't seem interested, apparently more focussed on ensuring that the losing did not happen again ( after France 2007 they must regret not taking our advice).